Conversations on Promoting Pathways and Access to Higher Education
The Center for Educational Outreach (CEO) and the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) presents a series of lectures that will engage the U-M community in conversations on promoting pathways and access to college.
2012-2013 Lecture
2011-2012 Lectures
2010-2011 Lectures
2009-2010 Lectures
2012-2013 Lectures
Educational Equality 50 Years Since "I Have a Dream" : Progress and Perils
Michael T. Nettles, Senior Vice President, the Policy Evaluation and Research Center and Edmund W. Gordon Chair at the Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Monday, January 28, 2013
3PM-4:30PM
Location: Tribute Room, Rm. 1322 - School of Education
Click here to RSVP your attendance
Nettles has a national reputation as a policy researcher on educational assessment, student achievement and educational equity, and higher education finance policy. His publications reflect his broad interest in public policy, student and faculty access, opportunity, achievement, and assessment in elementary and secondary education and in postsecondary education.
Nettles is a member of the Bank Street College of Education Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Center on Research on Teaching and Learning (CRTL); the Board of the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP) at the University of Southern California; the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA), Inc.; Nettles also served for a decade on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees and develops policies for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for eight years on the College Board of Trustees which owns the SAT, Advanced Placement course and exams and other educational products and services, and for four years on the GRE Board.
A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Nettles earned his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Tennessee, two a Master's degrees, one each in political science and higher education at Iowa State University, and a Ph.D in education at Iowa State University.
Native American Male Success Factors in Higher Education
Lee Bitsóí (Diné), EdD, Research Associate in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
Thursday, November 8, 2012
3PM-4:40PM
Location: Brownlee Room, Rm. 2327 - School of Education
Research indicates that Native Americans are the least likely population group to graduate from college. In addition, some scholars have found that college attendance can sometimes have a negative impact on American Indian students and their commitment to their cultural community, rather than the hoped for positive influence. In 2010, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that only 1% (12,222) of bachelor degrees were conferred to American Indian/Native Alaskan students, and over 60% of those graduates were female.
Dr. Bitsoi will discuss his research and work related to recruitment and retention efforts of American Indians at higher education institutions and in particular, the educational success factors for Native American males.
Lee Bitsóí (Diné), EdD, currently serves as a Research Associate in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University where he assists with the Diversity Action Plan for the FlyBase Training Program. In addition, Dr. Bitsóí is the lead Native American scholar for an initiative focusing on men of color sponsored by the College Board. As an advocate for minority scientists and scholars, Dr. Bitsóí also serves as the Secretary for the Board of Directors for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in Science.
Dr. Bitsóí previously served as the Minority Action Plan (MAP) Program Director in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where he directed a recruitment plan for underrepresented minority students interested in pursuing genomic sciences at the undergraduate and post-doc levels.
Dr. Bitsóí earned a bachelor of science degree with honors from the University of New Mexico, a master of education degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania (2007) where his research focused on the conditions that encourage and discourage American Indians from pursuing higher education, a subject upon which he has published.
Addressing an Often Invisible Element of Diversity: Supporting Low-Income Students on College Campuses
Dr. Adrianna Kezar, Associate Professor of Education and Associate Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, University of Southern California
Monday, October 22, 2012
12PM-1:30PM
Location: Tribute Room - School of Education (Room 1322)
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Dr. Kezar will discuss her three year research study examining federal policies such as individual development accounts to support low-income students in higher education. She will review ideas from her recent book entitled "Recognizing and Serving Low-Income Students in Higher Education."
2011-2012 Lectures
A Community Conversation on Higher Education Access and Michigan's Future Prosperity
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
8:30AM-1PM
Location: Koessler Library (3rd Fl.), Michigan League, 911 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Click here to RSVP your attendance
Featured Speakers:
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Susan Dynarski, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan |
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Donald Heller, Dean, College of Education, Michigan State University |
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Phil Power, Regent Emeritus, University of Michigan and founder of the Center for Michigan |
During this conversation, we will seek to explore the following questions:
- Why is higher education critical for Michigan’s future?
- Why should we care about higher education for all citizens
- What can be done to reduce barriers to college access among under-resourced communities and low-income students?
- What can colleges and universities do to advance a college going culture in under-resourced schools and communities?
Program Schedule:
8:30-9AM: Continental Breakfast
9-9:15AM: Welcome/Introductions
9:15-10:30AM: Panel Discussion
10:45-12:15: Community Discussion - The Center for Michigan
12:15-1PM: Lunch
Urban School Reform: The State of the Debate
Dr. Charles M. Payne, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor, School of Social Services Administration, the University of Chicago
Monday, March 12, 2012
12PM-1:30PM
Location: Tribute Room - School of Education
Charles M. Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, where he is also an affiliate of the Urban Education Institute. His interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change and modern African American history. He is the author of Getting What We Ask For: The Ambiguity of Success and Failure In Urban Education (1984) and I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (1995). The latter has won awards from the Southern Regional Council, Choice Magazine, the Simon Wisenthal Center and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. He is co-author of Debating the Civil Rights Movement (1999) and co-editor of Time Longer Than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850-1950 (2003).
He recently published So Much Reform, So Little Change (Harvard Education Publishing Group) which is concerned with what we have learned about the persistence of failure in urban districts, and an anthology, Teach Freedom: The African American Tradition of Education For Liberation (Teachers College Press), which is concerned with Freedom School-like education. He is the recipient of a Senior Scholar grant from the Spencer Foundation and is a Resident Fellow at the foundation for 2006-7. With the support of the Carnegie Scholar's Program, he is doing a study of how school reform dialogue in other countries compares to the American situation. His work on urban schools is also supported by an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for 2007-8. Fletcher fellowships support work that contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.
Payne has been a member of the Board of the Chicago Algebra Project, of the Steering Committee for the Consortium on Chicago School Research, the Research Advisory Committee for the Chicago Annenberg Project, the editorial boards of Catalyst, the Sociology of Education and Educational Researcher. He currently serves on the Board of MDRC, the editorial board of High School Journal, and the advisory board for Teacher College Press' series on social justice. He is the co-founder of the Duke Curriculum Project, which involves university faculty in the professional development of public school teachers and also co-founder of the John Hope Franklin Scholars, which tries to better prepare high school youngsters for college. He is among the founders of the Education for Liberation Network, which encourages the development of educational initiatives that encourage young people to think critically about social issues and understand their own capacity for addressing them; i.e., freedom schools, social justice schools, rites of passage programs and so on.
Payne was founding director of the Urban Education Project in Orange, New Jersey, a nonprofit community center that broadens educational experiences for urban youngsters. He has taught at Southern University, Williams College, Northwestern University and Duke University. He has won several teaching awards and at Northwestern, he held the Charles Deering McCormick Chair for Teaching Excellence and at Duke, the Sally Dalton Robinson Chair for excellence in teaching and research. Payne also served briefly as Interim Chief Education Officer for Chicago Public Schools.
Payne holds a bachelor's degree in Afro-American studies from Syracuse University and a doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University.
Building Pathways to College for Low-Income Students of Color: A Longitudinal Analysis of Summer Bridge Participants
Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, Associate Professor, The Ohio State University
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
3PM-4:30PM
Location: Brownlee Room - School of Education
Abstract: Summer bridge programs (SBPs) are increasingly popular in higher education as a strategy for helping students prepare for college, yet empirical studies in this area have remained largely descriptive and in short supply. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to measure the impact of SBP participation on preparation for college in four areas: psychological valuations, sense of belonging, and academic and social skills. Survey data from two SBP cohorts were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics. Follow-up interviews and focus groups with willing participants explored statistical findings in detail and elicited information about students' personal histories and aspirations. Results suggest that SBP participation positively affects specific academic skills, academic self-efficacy, and proximate sense of belonging. Positive beliefs about one's academic skills and pre-college aptitude also positively predict first-semester grades in college, explaining approximately 30% of the variance in first-semester GPA. Interview data gives voice to the lived experiences of students and reveals nuances in the study's overall findings. Implications for future research, federal and institutional policy, as well as educational practice will be highlighted.
Dr. Terrell Lamont Strayhorn is Associate Professor of Higher Education at The Ohio State University in the School of Educational Policy & Leadership within the College of Education and Human Ecology, where he also serves as Faculty Research Associate in the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, Senior Research Associate in the Todd A. Bell National Resource Center for African American Males, and faculty affiliate in the Department of African and African American Studies. Professor Strayhorn maintains an active and highly visible research agenda focusing on major policy issues in education: student access and achievement, equity and diversity, impact of college on students, and student learning and development.
Acclaimed higher education researcher and policy analyst, Strayhorn has authored 5 books and monographs including The Evolving Challenges of Black College Students (Stylus Publishing, 2010) and College Students' Sense of Belonging (Routledge), over 30 book chapters, and more than 75 refereed journal articles, reviews, and scientific reports. He is a highly sought after public speaker and presenter; to date, he has authored over 130 international, national, and state conference papers or presentations.
The Ethics of Higher Education Access--Normative and Comparative Perspectives
Dr. Heinz-Dieter Meyer, Associate Professor, SUNY - Albany
Thursday, October 6, 2011
12PM-1:30PM
Location: Tribute Room - School of Education
Abstract: Diversity in access to higher education has been an issue in the United States for some time. The issue takes on particular poignancy as growing segments of the middle class find themselves priced out of access to quality higher education. International disparities in access to higher education are now increasingly apparent as well. Diversity in access to higher education is becoming a matter of great economic, political and moral import as universities compete for talent and as nations seek to boost the performance of their higher education systems. Professor Heinz-Dieter Meyer will provide a review of contemporary models of ethical reasoning in an effort to elucidate normative standards of fairness, followed by a comparative review of the "moral compacts" of higher education access of Germany, China, Australia, and the United States.
Heinz-Dieter Meyer (PhD Cornell University) is Associate Professor of education, organization, and policy at SUNY Albany. He has taught in France (INSEAD) and Germany (the University of Goettingen), and held visiting appointments at Peking University, BU, Penn State, and the East-West Institute, Honolulu. In 1989/90 he was the Sidney Harman Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His 2009 AJE paper "Meaning What We Say And Saying What We Mean: Unpacking the Contingencies of Decentralization" was awarded the Kerker Award for Public Policy Research by the New York State Academy for Public Administration. He is author or editor of four books, including "The New Institutionalism in Education" (with Brian Rowan).
This lecture is co-sponsored by Projects in Promoting Equity in Urban and Higher Education and the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.
2010-2011 Lectures
Educational Justice and the "College for All" Agenda
Dr. Jeannie Oakes, Director of Education and Scholarship, Ford Foundation
Thursday, March 17, 2011
3PM-4:30PM
Location: Michigan League — Kossler Room
Dr. Oakes will discuss the latest controversy over whether schools should seek to prepare all young people for college. Her analysis and potential resolution are grounded in the nation's longstanding struggle for educational justice.
Jeannie Oakes is Director of Education and Scholarship at the Ford Foundation. Until Fall 2008, she was Presidential Professor in Educational Equity at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. At UCLA Oakes directed the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and the University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity. Oakes's research addresses the impact of education policies on the opportunities and outcomes of low-income students of color. Oakes is the author of twenty scholarly books and monographs and more than 125 other publications. Her book Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality (Yale University Press) was honored as one of the twentieth century's most influential books on education. Her most recent book, edited with Marisa Saunders, is Beyond Tracking: Multiple Pathways to College, Career, and Civic Participation (Harvard Education Press).
Oakes has received three major awards from the American Educational Research Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education's Multicultural Research Award, and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America. She is also the recipient of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Ralph David Abernathy Award for Public Service and, most recently, the 2002 World Cultural Council's Jose Vasconcelos World Award in Education. Professor Oakes is a member of the National Academy of Education.
From Mythology to Authenticity: Toward an Understanding of Southeast Asian American Students' Struggles and Strengths on the Road to College
Dr. Samuel D. Museus, Assistant Professor of Higher Education and affiliate faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program, The University of Massachusetts — Boston
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
12-1:30 PM
Location: School of Education — Brownlee Room
Abstract: While Southeast Asian Americans disproportionately come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, they are often lumped into a singular racial category with other Asian American ethnic groups, labeled as a model minority, and excluded from discourse around diversity and equity issues. In this session, Dr. Museus will discuss diversity and disparities within the Asian American population and how those inequities provide a context for understanding the experiences of Southeast Asian American students' experiences on the pathway to higher education. He will also utilize Southeast Asian American students' voices to highlight critical factors that positively and negatively influence their educational aspirations and choices to go to college.
Samuel D. Museus is Assistant Professor of Higher Education and an affiliate faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program at UMass Boston, where he teaches doctoral-level courses in qualitative and quantitative research methodology, the impact of college on students, and college students of color. His scholarship is focused on college access and success among underserved student populations. Specifically, his current research is aimed at understanding the role of institutional environments in minority college student adjustment, engagement, and persistence. He has produced over 40 journal articles, book chapters, and national conference presentations focused on understanding the institutional factors that shape the experiences and outcomes of racial/ethnic minority students.
Oakes has received three major awards from the American Educational Research Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education's Multicultural Research Award, and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America. She is also the recipient of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Ralph David Abernathy Award for Public Service and, most recently, the 2002 World Cultural Council's Jose Vasconcelos World Award in Education. Professor Oakes is a member of the National Academy of Education.
2009-2010 Lectures
The Carolina Covenant: Promise and Platform for Student Success
Shirley Ort, Associate Provost and Director, Office Scholarships and Student Aid, UNC — Chapel Hill
Friday, March 19, 12-1:30PM, 2010
Location: School of Education — Tribute Room
Shirley Ort administers a comprehensive program of $220 million in student aid to 15,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. She also advises campus administrators on matters related to tuition, student aid policy, student aid research, and national issues and trends related to the federal role in student aid and higher education funding. Prior to joining Chapel Hill in 1997, she served as deputy director for student financial aid at the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board for 18 years. Shirley is active in national student aid associations and currently serves as Chair of the College Scholarship Service of the College Board, and is a Trustee of the College Board.
A native of Michigan, she holds a Bachelor's degree in history from Spring Arbor University, a M.A. in medieval history from Western Michigan University, and a J.D. from Seattle University School of Law. She remains an active member of the Washington State Bar Association.
Understanding the Roles of Academic Preparation, Financial Resources, and Information in the College Enrollment of Underrepresented Students
Dr. Laura Perna, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1:30-3PM, 2010
Location: Rackham Graduate School — Assembly Hall
Dr. Perna joined the faculty as associate professor in 2005. Prior to her appointment at Penn GSE, she served on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park; as a research scientist and director of data analysis, as well as acting director, at the Frederick Patterson Research Institute of the United Negro College Fund; and as director of institutional research at the University of Dallas.
Her research has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Science, Lumina Foundation for Education, American Educational Research Association, and Association for Institutional Research. She serves as a member of the technical review group for the GEAR UP follow-up evaluation and the Upward Bound and Student Support Services Innovative Practices Study, the technical review panels for the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, the Beginning Postsecondary Student Survey, and the Baccalaureate and Beyond Study, the external advisory committee for the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, the research advisory board for the Thurgood Marshall Fund, the advisory board for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education GEAR UP Advisory Committee, the Board of Directors of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Lumina Foundation for Education's Research Advisory Committee.
In addition, she serves or has served on the editorial boards of the American Education Research Journal, Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Women in Higher Education, and Journal of the Professoriate, and is a consulting editor for Research in Higher Education. In 2003, the Association for the Study of Higher Education awarded her the Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the Division J Council of the American Educational Research Association. She has been elected to serve a three-year term as Vice President of Division J of the American Educational Research Association beginning April 2010.
Her scholarship uses an integrated theoretical approach and a variety of analytic techniques to understand the ways that public policies, social structures, and individual characteristics separately and together enable and restrict the ability of women, racial/ethnic minorities, and individuals of lower socioeconomic status to obtain the economic, social, and political opportunities that are associated with two aspects of higher education: access as a student and employment as a faculty member.
Beyond Barriers: Black Male College Access, Adjustment, and Achievement
Dr. Shaun Harper, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1:30-3PM, 2009
Location: Michigan Union — Pond Room
Shaun Harper is on the faculty in the Higher Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. He also holds an appointment in the Center for Africana Studies at Penn. Harper maintains an active research agenda that examines racism and gender disparities in American higher education, Black male college access and achievement, and college student engagement.
Harper has published six books and more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications. He has also presented more than 100 research papers, symposia, and workshops at national education conferences since 2001. His newest single-authored book, Exceeding Expectations: Black Male College Achievers and Insights into Success, is being published by Harvard University Press.
In September 2007, Harper was featured on the cover of Diverse Issues in Higher Education for his National Black Male College Achievement Study, the largest-ever empirical study of Black male undergraduates. He has been awarded over $900,000 in research grants from the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and other sources to fund his research. Harper received the 2005 Emerging Scholar Award and the 2006 Annuit Coeptis Award for early career achievement, both from the American College Personnel Association. In 2008, the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics presented him its Outstanding Contribution to Research Award. Also, he is recipient of the 2008 Association for the Study of Higher Education's Early Career Award.
Harper earned his bachelor's degree in Education from Albany State, a historically Black university in Georgia, and his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Indiana University.
Helping Underserved Students Gain Access to College
Dr. Rick Dalton, CEO and President, College for Every Student
Friday, Sept. 11, 11:30-1PM, 2009
Location: School of Education — Tribute Rooom
Rick Dalton, CFES founder, president, and CEO, oversees all CFES programs. Dalton has spent the last 24 years increasing opportunities for at-risk youth through school-college engagement. While serving as director of enrollment planning at Middlebury College, he created a partnership with a Bronx school that helped launch and strengthen more than 100 school-college partnerships. Dalton has written more than 120 articles and op-eds on college access and success for underserved students. He has served on numerous boards, including the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the New England Board of Higher Education's Task Force to Improve Minority Education.